Crafting With Consciousness

I know that the idea of stacked strawberry shortcake in a mason jar isn’t new, but it was so cute I just had to share. I made this for dessert for our Fourth of July picnic, and it was soooo good.

I made the biscuits out of a recipe from Americas Test Kitchen Cookbook, but if I made this again, I’d just use white cake or store bought shortcake. I started by layering a biscuit, then I added a layer of cool whip, macerated strawberries, and blueberries. I did this twice and then added a star-shaped biscuit on top.

I took a little blog break for most of June, but I have big plans for July, so you’ll be seeing me a lot more around here. Also, I’ve somewhat widened the scope of what I consider “wooly” for wooly wednesday, so it’s more wool-y, wool-ish, and wool-like.

This was supposed to go up earlier in the day, but things never go as planned around these parts. Hope you had a wonderful fourth of July (for the Americans), and I will be back later in the week to share some projects.

I know that I haven’t posted one of these in a long time and I’m sorry. Today, I’m changing it up a little and highlighting one particular artist. I can honestly say that looking at the work of Sarah Applebaum has made me more inspired than I’ve been in a long time. They are just truly amazing.

So, to Part 2 of the Oregon adventure. We got to Portland super late on Thursday night and left Saturday afternoon to get back home for Mother’s Day (and my Grandpa’s 80th birthday!!!). On Saturday, we went thrifting. I can’t say that I’m much of a thrifter, but it’s definitely something that I’d like to get into. I just have to develop some patience and self control, both of which I seem to be sorely lacking. This trip might have just convinced me that the work is worth it. So many beautiful things in this thrift shop. Of course, I have no idea what the name of this store is, but it’s in east Portland around a ton of other vintage shops.

I have to admit that I’m pretty obsessed with the small suitcase and the skates. Unfortunately I’ve put myself on a shopping freeze because I have literally run out of room, but it was really fun to look around. There will be one more post on this trip. Portland is truly an amazing city.

I feel so bad that I haven’t posted anything lately, but things have been SO CRAZY. Usually, I feel super guilty that I don’t post when I’m not that busy, but let me tell you I have a good excuse this time. I started working last week and it’s insanity. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my summer job, but I’m working as a canvasser. Yep, I’m that person who knocks on your door and tries to get you to donate money to super amazing causes. For right now, I don’t really want to make this all about my work. Maybe I’ll talk about it more later. The most important part is that I work from 12:30 pm to 10 pm! And we go out after work every night, so I don’t get home until midnight. The work is super physical also so I’ve been just exhausted.

But I really wanted to share my Oregon almost two weeks ago. We went on a college visit for my amazing fantastic beautiful brilliant sister. It was amaaaaaazzzzinnnnng!!!!!! I love Portland so much. We both decided that neither of us are nearly cool enough to live in there, but I want to so badly. Here are some pics from our first day, at Lewis & Clark

David lounging in the sun while we waited.

The campus is gorgeous. You can see Mt. Hood peeking through the trees in the background

The reason why we got to go on this trip. My amazing twinzie looking beautiful

We parked right next to this adorable bug, which I’m guessing is a replica of the Love Bug. It was just too cute.

I have a ton more photos to share from the trip so I’ll probably do one or two more posts on it. Hopefully I’ll do some crafting over the weekend and share it, but hopefully everyone has an amazing Memorial Day weekend.

As I finish up my school work, I decided to reward myself/procrastinate writing my last paper by baking some brownies. Now, these brownies aren’t from scratch (don’t look at me like that), but they are Ghiradelli Triple Chocolate which is pretty much the next best thing. I was just planning on baking them and eating some, but when I was finished inspiration struck and I decided I needed to use cookie cutters and make them adorable. And adorable they became. I used a 2 inch circle and a small heart cookie cutters, and I’m pretty happy with the results.

Just warning you before you start that this is kind of rambly and wordy, somewhat like word vomit. What can I say, it’s been a long week, and honestly even when I’m not tired I’m pretty rambly and wordy.

I definitely belong in the blogger hall of shame. I’ve just found it really difficult to post things lately (and I know that I haven’t posted the second round of yarnbombing pictures. I didn’t get great pictures and will have to get them from some other people, so it could take a while. If you want to see some more pictures of it though, I posted a few on instagram). First of all, I’m back home for summer, so packing up all of my things and getting them in storage and then moving back across the country was pretty horrible. I still have a few papers to do, but I can email them in and I was honestly just so finished with school and Boston that I needed to come home asap. Second, I’m having a lot of photography issues. I love beautiful pictures, but I really don’t have a good camera, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know how to use it. I’m interested in photography, but I’m really at the “fake it ’till you make it” kind of place. (Actually, next semester I’m signed up for a digital photography class, so hopefully this will only be temporary). Not really knowing anything about photography and being a ridiculous perfectionist don’t really go hand in hand. So, the posts get written but there are no pictures to go along with them. I’m going to try and put myself on a blogging schedule so it’s not so sporadic, because I really do love doing it. (Also, I’m much better at keeping up with instagram, and there are many crafty photos. If you’re interested, my username is sarahelana).

From the blog so far, you would never know that I do crafts other than knitting. I promise I do, and I have some hopefully really cool tutorials coming up that have nothing to do with knitting. BUT, for today, I still have crochet. Maybe this is enough of a change of pace for you, I kind of lump them into the same category.

A little background on this project, and my crochet journey. I did just say that, and I sincerely apologize. From here on out, I will pinch myself every time I refer to it as “a journey.” First of all, I’m left-handed. Actually, all three kids in my family are left-handed, and my parents are both righties. I told this to one of my friends once and he told that I was probably adopted. I super appreciated that. Anyways, back to the story. I took a class to learn how to knit, and I knit English and don’t have any issues with it being very right-hand-centered. On the other hand, I taught myself how to crochet, and I do it left-handed. Since I’ve knit for so long and I have the dexterity and muscle memory, I’m really good at the actual motion of crochet, but it doesn’t mean I can follow a pattern, especially since by doing it with my left hand, I crochet backwards (or so people tell me). I’ve never really attempted a crochet pattern, but I LOOOOVVVEEE the groovyghan (here’s the link to my pattern page) and I had some yarn left over from yarnbombing, plus I bought some extra skeins to make a blanket, so I set out on my first real crochet project. Let me tell you, I am hooked. I absolutely love it. Crochet is really different than knitting, which will always be my first love. But crochet is such a fluid motion, and it goes so damn quick! The amount that I’ve crocheted in the last week would take at least double the time if I was knitting. I’m totally a fan of instant gratification. I’m just going to share a few instagram pics of it right now, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll take real pictures and post them. PS I’m going to Oregon on Thursday!!!! Super excited, and I promise I will do fun things and actually blog about them! Pinkie swear.

Yesterday, I was super stressed and having a really bad day. It was one of those things that I couldn’t quite put my finger on the cause, but I was just antsy and frustrated. So, I picked up a sandwich from one of my favorite sandwich shops, and I had a little solo picnic on the grass in front of the library. It was a gorgeous day, and I laid on the grass listening to music and reading my book (In case you’re interested, I’m reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and I’m loving it!!!). I stayed outside for a few hours and it was just what I needed. Sometimes, it just takes some fresh air and amazing mozzarella to turn a day around.

Okay, so the first part of my project has been installed, and I am over the moon. I spent three hours sitting on the damp mulch behind this bench sewing the covers for the slats, and it was totally worth it. People walking by were so excited about it, I had tons of questions and everyone was so incredibly nice. It just makes me so happy.

I will probably have some more updates tomorrow, and then the project will be finished and I get my life back! I’m just hoping that this weather keeps up. Rain and yarn don’t mix that well.

My yarnbombing project has to be installed by Thursday, so you can imagine that I’m freaking out. If you can’t imagine, let me tell you that I’M FREAKING OUT. I’m doing a little better today than I was yesterday, but it’s a lot of stress. Knitting is tons of work, but I’ve also been worried about attaching them to the poles. Ideally, I would sew them all, but in reality it’s not humanly possible. I thought that velcro would be a good alternative, so it’s being held together with velcro, staples, and dreams. I’m kind of a the point of whatever works. I was freaking out until I did my first test, for real. AND IT WORKED!!!! To say that I am relieved is an understatement. There’s still a huge amount of work to be done, but at least I now know that if I can finish knitting, it will actually work. Breathing hugh sighs of relief. I’ll continue to update on my progress. I’m so happy and excited and proud. And now comes the part where I maniacally knit for the next 4 days.

I have a confession… I am a link-sender. I send many many links and videos and pictures to friends and family, and I’m not one of those kind, relaxed link senders. I’m like ‘have you read it? how about now?….now? You’re killing me! Watch the goddamn video I sent you asshole. ‘ (thankfully, that’s the […]